Girl Meets Romeo and Juliet
by fireandice217
Summary: It's the week after Semi Formal, and Mr. Matthew's class prepares to read Romeo and Juliet while the hive five prepares for war-a war that Maya will do anything in her power to stop. Or: In which Zay and Farkle fight, and Maya and Lucas... well, according to Maya, they're not fighting.
1. Chapter 1

"Maya!" Did she really think he hadn't seen her when they'd come face to face in front of school? Or was her blatantly ignoring him their new game? Because, if so, Lucas didn't like their new game. He missed their old one. "Maya, I KNOW you can hear me!"  
"No, I can't!" Ugh, she thought, cutting through a couple taking up the middle of the hall. Why did Riley have to show up to class early to take missed test _today?_ This conversation would be a LOT easier to avoid with the other girl at her side.

"Maya-" he starts again, striding to catch up with her. How could someone so short move so _fast?_

Fortunately for Lucas, Zay approaches them then, forcing Maya to come to a stop. "Hey, guys!" he greets, totally oblivious to her straightened posture and narrowed eyes. "Check it out: new skateboard. I got it from a place in Texas over the weekend."  
The skateboard is the only thing stopping Maya from skirting around Zay to get to class; the four-wheeled boards have been her transportation of choice since she was eight (until she'd started riding the subway, of course). "Oohhooh," she exclaims, forgetting about Lucas for a moment as she takes the red and black board in her hands for closer examination.  
"Hey. I thought your 'oohhooh's' were for me," Lucas frowns, sidling up beside her, hair disheveled and shirt unusually wrinkly.  
"You don't OWN my 'oohhhooh's,' Lucas Friar," she scowls, throwing her hands, along with Zay's skateboard, stiffly to her sides.

"Hey!" Lucas repeats. _"'Lucas Friar?'_ What happened to Huckleberry?"  
"You tell me," she returns. "I called you Huckleberry back when you ACTED like a huckleberry. Now? I don't know _what_ to call you, so I have no choice but to use your given name."

"Okay, _first of all,_ why don't we give _this_ back to Zay?" their friend jumps in, gently taking the skateboard back from Maya's now clenched hands. "Second of all," he continues, a smile already turning up at the corners of his mouth, "let me get this straight: last month, you were fighting about her calling you names, and now you're fighting because she isn't?"  
"That's not why we're fighting," he says.  
"We're _not_ fighting," she says.  
"Okay. So why ARE you doing... whatever it is you're doing?"  
"It doesn't matter!" she says.  
"I didn't do anything!" he says.

"You know what you did!" Maya's pointer finger is just centimeters away from jabbing Lucas' chest, a visual exclamation point at the end of her assertion. Lucas, for his part, opens his mouth to say something back-it's just that no words come out; he seems to have temporarily lost all ability to produce sound (though his face has lost _none_ of its ability to produce the color red).  
Zay just laughs. "Riiight. Well as long as _you two_ know what you're fighting about, I gotta go put this bad boy in my locker." He gestures to the skateboard before setting it back on the linoleum tile and-to the dismay of several teachers-skating off on it, leaving the aforementioned two alone in the hallway.  
Well, mostly alone. A few other kids are still getting books out of lockers, flocking outside open classrooms, waiting until the last possible second before the bell rings to go to class.  
Lucas clears his throat. "Maya-"  
"Well, I sure don't wanna be late!" she cuts in, already skipping off to their nearby classroom.  
"Can we just TALK about this?" he calls after her.  
"Go ahead! _Talk!"_ she yells back, turning to him for only a second before bounding through the open classroom entrance.  
"Maya-you're looking chipper today," Mr. Matthews notes as she swaggers into class. He raises a brow. "Should I be worried?"  
"Not today!" she answers, bouncing over to her desk. "I'm giving you the day off, Matthews; I have absolutely NO shenanigans on my to-do list." With that, she slides into her seat, opening her history book for what has to be the first time this year.  
Huh.  
Lucas walks in next, shoulders slumped, looking like he hasn't slept in two days. "Mr. Friar," Cory greets. His brow furrows. "You alright?" Wait: Maya's opened her history book; Lucas looks like he hasn't sleep in two days. _Huh._ He glances back at Maya, oddly absorbed in what appears to be the Table of Contents, before turning back to Lucas; his question has a more serious air to it this time: "Should I be worried?"  
"No, Sir. I just didn't get a lot of sleep."  
"I got a ton of sleep," Maya pipes up. "I slept like a baby; I slept like a person with absolutely no worries on her mind."  
Riley's already turned around in her seat to flash her a quizzical smile. "Okay, it's my turn to ask: how ya doing, Peaches?"  
"Great," Maya answers. Lucas saunters over to his desk and plops down behind her. "Less great."  
Riley looks from Maya to Lucas and back again: Maya staring down at her history book _(Wait, what?),_ Lucas staring at the back of Maya's head. ...Huh. "Am I missing something?"  
Zay walks in then, not missing a beat. "Oh, these two? They're in a fight." The late bell rings as if in confirmation.  
 _"Again?"_ Farkle blurts as Zay sits down behind him. "We barely made it through the last one! I'm not ready to go to war again!" His hand's already reaching for the pocket of his flannel jacket, no doubt for another hidden toy gun. Of course, _this_ sets _Riley_ off. "Are we gonna bring in Uncle Eric again?" she asks, whipping around to where her dad's stood at the front of the room. Mr. Matthews seems to be considering it.  
 _Okay,_ _ **someone**_ _needs to stop this domino effect before it gets out of hand._ "Nobody needs to bring nobody in! Me and Lucas weren't in a fight then, and we _aren't_ in one now." There, Maya thinks. That should end the discussion.  
Riley's turned back around to look at her, brow furrowed. "Well if you aren't in a fight then... what's going on?"  
So that didn't work.  
Everyone seems to be looking at Maya for an answer to that one. Including Lucas. She'd be able to feel his stare even if she hadn't turned her head to glance at him.  
...Welp. Here's something she never thought she'd say: "Mr. Matthews? Can we just start the lesson?"

He smiles kindly. "Sure, Maya. Today we will be discussing the story of Romeo and Juliet."


	2. Chapter 2: Was it Love?

"You know you're a history teacher, right?" Maya's wrinkling her nose; she's SO not in the mood for Romeo and Juliet today.

"I do," answers a cheery Mr. Matthews. "But I also teach you how to interact with each other, how to become better people. Romeo and Juliet may be a fictional story, but we can still learn from it. And with this being the week after Semi Formal, it seems like the right time for a story of heartbreak. Farkle, Zay-take it away."

Farkle starts. "The story begins with Romeo loving Rosaline; he's heartbroken because she doesn't return his love-sorta like me with Riley and Maya."

Zay almost rolls his eyes. "So a bunch of Romeo's buddies tell him, you've gotta get over this chick! So they crash the Capulets' party to find him another one-"

"Which was a bad idea because Romeo's family, the Montagues, had a feud with the Capulets."

"And how did the feud start?" Mr. Matthews asks.

"No one knows," Farkle answers.

"And what happened at this party?"

"He fell for Juliet." Zay.

Cory pauses (Maya just KNOWS he's about to go on one of his spiels). "Romeo and Juliet is the story of two people who weren't supposed to fall in love-but did." And here comes the spiel. "All the odds were stacked against them: their families had a feud that went back so far, nobody knew how it started in the first place; Romeo made it clear he loved Rosaline before he fell for Juliet, meanwhile, Juliet ended up getting engaged to another man: Count Paris. All of the forces around them were determined to keep them apart-so here's a question: why'd they fall in love?"

There's a moment of silence. "Well you don't pick who you fall in love with," Riley says.

Please. "They weren't in love."

"Maya, they couldn't live without each other-how DON'T you call that love?"

"Because love is supposed to be a good thing; it's not supposed to cause the kind of pain Romeo and Juliet did."

"Interesting point, Maya." Mr. Matthews cocks his head. "So if it wasn't love, what was it?"

Maya blinks; she hates getting called on in class, but it looks like she brought it on herself this time. "They wanted what they couldn't have." He nods for her to continue. "They barely even knew each other. Both of them only wanted the other because their family's feud made the other seem unattainable."

"Good. Wanting something KNOWING we can't have it. What do you call that?" Mr. Matthews asks the class.

There's a beat. "Human nature," Zay says.

There's another pause, and Lucas must raise his hand because next thing Maya knows, Mr. Matthews is giving him the go to talk. "Lucas?"

"I don't think that's true. If Romeo only wanted what he couldn't have, wouldn't he have just kept pining over Rosaline?"

Mr. Matthews considers this. "So you're arguing that Romeo really did love Juliet?"

Lucas pauses, suddenly looking uncomfortable. "I'm saying he didn't want what he couldn't have."

Now Maya's whipped around to face him. "So are you saying Romeo thought he COULD have Juliet?"

It's a loaded question. "Yea-no, wait-"

She's staring daggers at him.

"No? No. I'm not saying that."

"Then what are you saying?"

Lucas furrows his brow. "I'm saying that the way he felt about her didn't have anything to do with their families or Rosaline or Count Paris; it had to do with her."

Maya crosses her arms as she turns back in her seat, muttering, "I'm sure the way he felt about Rosaline had everything to do with her too."

"But things didn't work out with Rosaline! That doesn't make his feelings for Juliet any less real."

"Wow," Farkle exclaims. "I thought I was into Shakespeare."

"I don't think they're talking about Shakespeare," Zay grins.

"What else would they be talking about?" Riley says.

Maya's on the verge of storming out of class when the bell rings, mercilessly stopping WHATEVER it was they'd been talking about. She gets up and starts walking when Mr. Matthews stops her. "Maya. I saw more participation from you today than I have all year." He cocks his head. "Is there anything else you'd like to say?"

She stares back at him, wide-eyed. There's a lot she needs to say. Just... "Not yet."

He merely nods. "Okay. Well let me know if there is."

She nods back before finally making it out of the classroom, Riley, Lucas, Farkle, and Zay all trailing behind her.


	3. Chapter 3: A Very Long Passing Period

"WHAT was that about?"

"I know, right?" Maya says with an eye roll. "I can't believe our HISTORY teacher's making us read Romeo and Juliet. You've really gotta talk to your dad about his material sometime."

Riley crosses her arms. "That's not what I'm talking about. You and Lucas are fighting, and I wanna know why."

"We're not fighting."

"Well SOMETHING'S going on!"

"Can we talk about this later?"

"No! We can't talk about this later because something's wrong, and when something's wrong with my friends, I need to know what it is so I can-"

"So you can fix it, I know-believe me, I know," Maya sighs, eyes meeting Lucas' as he comes out of the class. Her eyes widen, and she shakes her head, silently sending him the message not to come up to them; he sighs, but his chin lifts just a bit in response, a tiny gesture that goes undetected by everyone else in the hall. He turns to Farkle and Zay and says something, and the three take off in the opposite direction.

"And aren't things always better after I fix them?" Riley's saying.

Yeah, Maya thinks, right AFTER they get a million times worse. She doesn't say that, though-she knows Riley's intentions are always good when it comes to helping her friends, and the truth is, she's right: problems DO tend to get fixed once she's found out about them. The problem is that Maya doesn't want her finding out about this specific problem. At least, not yet. Not here at school. She just needs to find the right moment to tell her what happened, figure out the right way to phrase it. And until she accomplishes both those things?

She needs to buy herself some more time.

"Ring power," she mutters, eyes still stuck where Lucas once stood.

"What?"

She faces Riley, jaw set in a hard line. "Ring. Power. You have to say yes to forgetting about this until I'm ready to talk about it.'

Riley gasps, eyes crinkling and getting glassy with unshed tears. "You're using ring power to keep something from me?"

Maya instantly feels a sharp jab of guilt from being the one to put that look on her face. "Not forever, okay? Just… for now, I need some time. There's something I have to tell you, but I want to do it right."

...

"So THAT was an interesting class," Zay grins, leading the way to Lucas' locker.

Lucas scowls, pulling his locker open and staring at the books inside dejectedly.

"I know, right?" Farkle exclaims. "I love Shakespeare-it's amazing to see how his stories relate to our own lives!"

Lucas hadn't really been listening to Farkle's Shakespeare talk until that last statement. "Wait, what?"

"Wait- _what?"_ Zay echoes, equally surprised.

"You know, my unrequited love for Riley and Maya."

"Ohh-"

"That."

"Yep! The way I see it, Romeo had one Rosaline before he got his Juliet, so I'm bound to end up with two Juliets fighting over me someday." He cocks his head to the side then. "Wait, what did you guys think I was talking about?"

Lucas and Zay both look at each other, then at Farkle, then back again-Lucas with an uneasy frown, Zay with a lopsided smirk and mischievous eyes.

"Um," Lucas says, eyeing Zay. "I'm not really sure."

Zay's grin widens, but as he turns back to Farkle, he just rolls his eyes. "Of course we knew you were talking about Riley and Maya. Your 'unrequited love' for them is all you ever talk about."

…

Riley pauses, gauging Maya's expression: eyes wide, lip bit, that little crease she gets between her brows whenever she feels guilty… And as much as Riley wants to know what the newest problem between her two friends is, somehow she wants to replace that look on Maya's face with a smile even more. "Okay," she sighs. "We can talk about it later."

Maya smiles; the crease disappears. "Thank you."

Riley smiles back: her work is done; she'll just save the hard part-finding out the truth-for after school. _Okay, onto a lighter topic,_ she thinks. "So, guess who's coming over today?"

"Who?"

"Uncle Josh!"

"Uncle Boing's coming over?" Maya grins.

"Yes he is! And hopefully you can talk to him WITHOUT jumping on his back this time?" she teases.

"Yeah." Maya sighs lightly. "Wow, that seems like such a long time ago now."

"I guess," Riley says, brow furrowing; she thought even mentioning Josh would be enough to cheer Maya up, but she brought news of him VISITING, and the other girl still seems pensive. "Oh," she adds, brightening, "and apparently some old friends of my parents are coming over too. My dad says they have 'big news,' whatever that could mean."

"Your parents have friends other than Shawn?"

Riley laughs.

…

"What's your point?" Farkle asks.

"It's just annoying," Zay shrugs. "Besides, everyone knows you can't be in love with two people at once."

"Really, and where's your scientific proof of that?"

"I don't need science; I've got Shakespeare on my side." Farkle raises a brow in question, so Zay adds, "Not even _Romeo_ loved Juliet and Rosaline at the same time."

"So what are you saying?" Farkle says, not quite understanding.

"I'm saying either you're in love with one or neither, but no way are you in love with both."

"And what makes you think you know what I feel?"

Zay purses his lips in thought for a moment. "Because you see them as good and bad, day and night, two halves of a whole-but they're not. They're people, individuals, and until you start seeing them that way, you'll never really know them. And how can you love them if you don't even know them?"

Farkle seems to consider this… for about two seconds, and then he's turning to their third friend. "Lucas, tell Zay I love Riley and Maya."

Normally, Lucas would've already stepped in to extinguish Farkle and Zay's argument; he would've said something about how Riley and Maya were BOTH great, or, no, Zay couldn't know what Farkle was feeling, or even found some way to turn the discussion back to Shakespeare. But today, well, he has a lot on his mind. He wants to focus on his friends' discussion, but his head is filled with thoughts of Maya's face when she first saw him that morning-like a deer caught in headlights, only this deer was mostly just annoyed with the driver-and her sharp voice in class and wait, was that "Stay away" look she'd sent him because she was arguing with Riley, or because now that they were out of class she was back to ignoring him? and if the latter were true, did that mean they weren't sitting together at lunch? ...so by the time he's shaken off those thoughts, he's got zero idea why Zay even cares that Farkle loves Riley and Maya or why Farkle cares that Zay cares.

Not that he'd know even if he HAD been listening. Lately, all Farkle and Zay ever seem to do is get into stupid arguments-usually over Riley and Maya, now that he thinks about it…

"Um," he starts, turning his face away from his locker. "What?"

Zay laughs; Farkle scoffs: "Just forget it."

The warning bell rings, punctuating Farkle's statement and hammering the last nail in what is sure to be Lucas' metaphorical coffin. He finally grabs his paper bag from the locker, swinging it shut.

It's lunchtime.


	4. Shakespeare Was Never This Complicated

"What do you know."

Farkle had gone to buy his lunch, leaving Lucas and Zay alone at their usual table. "Oh," Zay smirks, "I know _everything."_

"How?"

"Well, my teachers have been known to call me intuitive, but my mom says I'm just nosy-"

"Zay. How do you know about me and Maya?"

"You and Maya? Well I didn't know anything about that, but if you're looking for someone to confide in, I'd be happy to oblige!"

"You're impossible."

"No, _you're_ impossible, Mr. Huckleberry-Hopalong-Sundance. You obviously like this girl-what's the problem?"

"I liked Riley first."

"So what? I liked Farkle when I met him, and look at us now!"

"Yeah, what's with that anyway? Why are you guys suddenly fighting all the time?"

"It's complicated."

"More complicated than me liking Maya?"

"More complicated than you liking a girl? Yeah. About twice as complicated."

Lucas furrows his brow in confusion, trying to figure out what that means, when the third of their trio stops in front of their table. "I won't be sitting here today. I will be sitting at that table next to this one."

"Farkle," he sighs.

"Lucas, you can choose to join me or stay with _him_. Zay-have a good lunch." With that, Farkle's off, headed toward the empty table next door.

"Yeah, I will," Zay calls after him, "with my best friend!"

Lucas shoots him a look, and they nod. "Complicated."

"You know, I think it's hardly fair if you know what's going on with me and Maya while I know nothing about what's happening with you and Farkle."

"Yeah, well maybe I'll confide in you another time-your complication just walked through the door."

Lucas turns his head toward the cafeteria entrance just in time to catch Maya's furrowed brow and Riley's wide eyes at the sight of loner Farkle. The blonde's eyes shoot to him next, and the message she sends is clear: _what did you do?_

"I think your complication just made my complication more complicated."

Author's note: I know this chapter's shorter, but I kinda like how it turned out, so I think this is how I'm going to write each chapter for the rest of the fic. Also, sorry the update was so late! I wanted to work on some other stuff-I'll try to update more regularly now. Thanks for all of the reviews; they're what inspired me to keep going~


End file.
